“Zinda dilon ki hai yahan zindagi … murda dil khaak jiya karte hai.” This dialogue might not have been from one of Feroz Khan’s iconic films, lesser still it was a release that tanked at the box office without so much as a whimper. But that is besides the point, the significant thing is that it endorsed a creed that was at the very heart of this flamboyant actor’s existence. […]

The famous American author John C. Maxwell said “ A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow”. This could very well apply to the Indian film industry where most of the scripts celebrate the make believe and maintaining the semblance of reality is essentially an afterthought. Suspension of disbelief is a term that is not only missing from the lexicon not because realism has been suspended but […]

  The 4th of January 1994 was a dark day for music – especially the Bollywood music industry. An era came to an end when Pancham took his last breath just before the release of `1942: A Love Story`. The life of RD Burman or Pancham da was music. Pancham enthusiasts all over the world swear by his work and his compositions. Whether it was a soulful collaborations with Gulzar, […]

Noted lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar has completed 50 years in the film industry. Recalling his long association with Bollywood, he said: “It was on October 4, 1964, that I stepped down at the railway station in Mumbai. Over the years I’ve realised that all that has happened to me is not because I’m good, but because people have been good to me. “If I had to describe my journey […]

If you saw Guru Dutt sulk in Pyaasa (The Thirsty, 1957) on the arrogance of the rich, you can blame it on the Nehruvian economic model that focused on industrialization with the Second Five-Year Plan that began in 1956. In the same year, we had a more optimistic  Naya Daur (New Age),in which Dilip Kumar plays a tongawalla who takes on the threats posed by the arrival of the bus. The […]